Transistor with isolation below source and drain

ABSTRACT

A transistor includes a body of semiconductor material with a gate structure in contact with a portion of the body. A source region contacts the body adjacent the gate structure and a drain region contacts the body adjacent the gate structure such that the portion of the body is between the source region and the drain region. A first isolation region is under the source region and has a top surface in contact with a bottom surface of the source region. A second isolation region is under the drain region and has a top surface in contact with a bottom surface of the drain region. Depending on the transistor configuration, a major portion of the inner-facing sidewalls of the first and second isolation regions contact respective sidewalls of either a subfin structure (e.g., FinFET transistor configurations) or a lower portion of a gate structure (e.g., gate-all-around transistor configuration).

BACKGROUND

Semiconductor devices are electronic components that exploit theelectronic properties of semiconductor materials, such as silicon (Si),germanium (Ge), gallium arsenide (GaAs), and indium phosphide (InP), toname a few examples. A field effect transistor (FET) is a semiconductordevice that includes three terminals: a gate, a source, and a drain. AFET uses an electric field applied by the gate to control the electricalconductivity of a channel through which charge carriers (e.g., electronsor holes) flow between the source and drain. In instances where thecharge carriers are electrons, the FET is referred to as an n-channeldevice, and in instances where the charge carriers are holes, the FET isreferred to as a p-channel device. Some FETs have a fourth terminal thatcan be used to bias the transistor. In addition,metal-oxide-semiconductor FETs (MOSFETs) include a gate dielectricbetween the gate and the channel. MOSFETs may also be known asmetal-insulator-semiconductor FETs (MISFETSs) or insulated-gate FETs(IGFETs). Complementary MOS (CMOS) structures use a combination ofp-channel MOSFET (PMOS) and n-channel MOSFET (NMOS) devices to implementlogic gates and other digital circuits.

A FinFET is a MOSFET transistor built around a thin strip ofsemiconductor material generally referred to as a fin. Because theconductive channel of such configurations includes three differentplaner regions of the fin (e.g., top and two sides), such a FinFETdesign is sometimes referred to as a tri-gate transistor. Other types ofFinFET configurations are also available, such as so-called double-gateFinFETs, in which the conductive channel principally resides only alongthe two sidewalls of the fin (and not along the top of the fin). Ananowire transistor (sometimes referred to as a gate-all-around (GAA) ornanoribbon transistor) is configured similarly to a fin-basedtransistor, but instead of a finned channel region with the gate on twoor three portions, the gate material generally surrounds or encircleseach nanowire of the channel region, hence a “gate-all-around”structure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A illustrates a cross-sectional view taken parallel to and throughthe semiconductor fin structure of a transistor having a tri-gateconfiguration, wherein insulator material is below the source and drainregions and extends upward along the lower portion (sub-channel) of thefin structure to the bottom surface of the upper portion (channelregion) of the fin structure, in accordance with some embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 1B illustrates a cross-sectional view taken parallel to and throughthe semiconductor fin structure of a transistor having a tri-gateconfiguration, wherein insulator material is below the source and drainregions and extends upward along the lower portion (sub-channel) of thefin structure to beyond the bottom surface of the upper portion (channelregion) of the fin structure, in accordance with some embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 2A illustrates a cross-sectional view taken parallel to and throughthe semiconductor fin structure of a transistor having a gate-all-aroundconfiguration, wherein insulator material is below the source and drainregions and extends along the bottom portion of the gate structure to beabout even with a top surface of the bottom portion of the gatestructure, in accordance with some embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 2B illustrates a cross-sectional view taken parallel to and throughthe semiconductor fin structure of a transistor having a gate-all-aroundconfiguration, wherein insulator material is below the source and drainregions and extends along the bottom portion of the gate structure tobeyond a top surface of the bottom portion of the gate structure, inaccordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates a perspective view of an example integrated circuitstructure including non-planar transistor devices having isolatedsource/drain regions, in accordance with some embodiments of the presentdisclosure. Note that line A-A of FIG. 3 defines an example planecorresponding to the cross-sectional views of FIGS. 1A-1B and 2A-2B, inaccordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates a process flow diagram for a method of forming atransistor device having isolated source/drain regions, in accordancewith some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example computing system implemented withintegrated circuit structures and/or transistor devices formed, inaccordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

These and other features of the present embodiments will be understoodbetter by the following detailed description, taken together with thefigures herein described. In the drawings, each identical or nearlyidentical component that is illustrated in various figures may berepresented by a like numeral. For purposes of clarity, not everycomponent may be labeled in every drawing. Furthermore, as will beappreciated, the figures are not necessarily drawn to scale or intendedto limit the described embodiments to the specific configurations shown.For instance, while some figures generally indicate straight lines,right angles, and smooth surfaces, an actual implementation of thedisclosed techniques may have less than perfect straight lines and rightangles, and some features may have surface topography or otherwise benon-smooth, given real-world limitations of fabrication processes.Further still, some of the features in the drawings may include apatterned and/or shaded fill, which is merely provided to assist invisually distinguishing the different features. In short, the figuresare provided merely to show example structures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Non-planar transistor structures are disclosed that include an isolationregion of insulator material below the source and drain regions. Such astructure can be used in various transistor structures, includingmetal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) devices, forexample. In some embodiments, a transistor includes a body ofsemiconductor material that comprises the channel region of thetransistor, wherein the body has a fin-like structure includinglaterally opposed body sidewalls and a top surface, or a wire-likestructure that further includes a bottom surface. In some embodiments, agate structure contacts the top surface and opposing sidewalls of thechannel region to provide double-gate and tri-gate transistorconfigurations, while in other embodiments the gate structure is on allsides of or otherwise all around the channel region to providegate-all-around transistor configurations. A source region contacts afirst side of the channel region and a drain region contacts a secondside of the channel region. A first isolation region is under the sourceregion and has a top surface in contact with a bottom surface of thesource region. A second isolation region is under the drain region andhas a top surface in contact with a bottom surface of the drain region.As will be appreciated in light of this disclosure, the disclosedmethodologies enable high performance transistor devices while reducingor eliminating parasitic subfin leakage.

General Overview

In some instances, a FinFET device can exhibit parasitic leakage betweenthe source and drain regions. For example, charge carriers tunnelthrough the material of the lower fin portion and bypass the channelregion. Controlling parasitic leakage is a significant challenge inscaling III-V transistors. Unlike silicon transistors, doping viaimplant is not an option since the dopants used in III-V materialsdiffuse quickly. One approach to reducing parasitic subfin leakage is touse a gate-all-around (GAA) structure, where the gate structure contactsthe sides, the top, and the bottom of the channel region. For example,the bottom portion of the gate structure is located below the channelregion in place of the material of the lower fin portion. As such, thebottom portion of the gate structure replaces the lower fin materialwhere the parasitic subfin leakage occurred and provides a barrier toparasitic leakage. In some cases, the bottom portion of the gatestructure has a width that extends laterally beyond the channel region,resulting in variation in the gate length L_(g). To avoid this variationin gate length L_(g), the bottom portion of the gate can be formedhaving the same width as the top portion and including insulatingspacers along sides of the bottom portion of the gate in a positionsimilar to the spacers along the upper portion of the gate. However,integrating spacers into the lower gate structure is complex andchallenging. Therefore, to improve the performance of a FET with a groupIII-V material, it would be desirable to further reduce or eliminateparasitic subfin leakage.

Thus, and in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure,techniques are provided for forming tri-gate and GAA transistorstructures that include an isolation structure below the source anddrain regions. In some embodiments, a gate structure including the gatedielectric and gate electrode is formed on the top and opposingsidewalls of the semiconductor body or so-called fin between the sourceand drain regions, resulting in a tri-gate structure. In otherembodiments, in addition to contacting the top and opposing sidewalls ofthe semiconductor body, the gate structure also contacts a bottomsurface of the semiconductor body or so-called nanowire (or nanoribbon),resulting in a gate-all-around structure. In any such cases, aninsulating structure provisioned below the source and drain regionsreduces or blocks parasitic leakage from the source and drain regionssince the insulating structure extends along and contacts the bottomsurface of the source and drain regions. In some embodiments, the finstructure comprising the channel region may be, for instance, a groupIII-V semiconductor material, or a multilayer structure comprising twodistinct group III-V semiconductor materials. For instance, in someexample embodiments, the fin structure includes a top portion thatincludes the channel region and a bottom portion that includes thesub-channel (sometimes called subfin) region, wherein the top portion iscompositionally different from the bottom portion, such as a bottomportion of gallium arsenide and a top portion of indium galliumarsenide. In such a case, the isolation structures below the source anddrain regions extend up the sidewalls of the bottom portion and the gatestructure. In other such cases, the bottom portion of the fin structureis removed during final gate processing, thereby allowing for a GAAconfiguration. In such a case, the isolation structures below the sourceand drain regions extend up the sidewalls of a bottom portion of thegate structure (where the subfin would have been if not removed). Inother embodiments, the fin structure comprising the channel region maybe a group IV semiconductor material, such as Si, SiGe, or Ge, or amultilayer structure comprising two distinct group IV semiconductormaterials. As will be appreciated, in any such configurations, theisolation structures below the source and drain regions effectivelyisolate the source and drain regions from the subfin region and thusinhibit subfin leakage.

In one example methodology for forming such as structure, an etchprocess is carried out to form relatively deep recesses or pockets toeither side of the channel region defined by the gate structure. Theetch effectively passes through the upper portion of semiconductor fin(in the areas where the source and drain regions will be deposited) andinto the material of the lower fin portion. Note that this recessprocess defines pockets aligned with the source and drain regions. Priorto depositing the source/drain materials, an insulator, such as SiO₂ orsome other insulating material(s) is deposited to fill the bottomportion of the pockets and replace the material etched from the lowerfin portion. The insulator material or structure extends upward alongthe subfin sidewall at least to a bottom of the channel region of theupper fin portion (or said differently, up to the bottom of the gatestructure, which may be a dummy or final gate structure, depending onthe gate process used). The source and drain regions can then beepitaxially regrown laterally from the body semiconductor material ofthe channel region, followed by further processing to complete thetransistor.

Note that the laterally grown source and drain regions may includematerial that is the same as the body/channel material (not counting anydopant), but may also be different. In any case, the laterally grownsource and drain regions can be doped (in situ) to provide the desiredpolarity (PMOS or NMOS). Further note that the further processing afterthe source and drain regions are provided may include gate-lastprocessing, which generally includes removal of dummy gate materials toexpose the channel region between the source and drain regions. Inaddition, for nanowire or nanoribbon configurations, the bottom portionof the fin structure may also be removed using a further etch that isselective to the top portion of the fin structure (i.e., the selectiveetch removes the bottom portion of the fin much faster than it removesthe top portion of the fin structure). In such cases, note that theselective etch may further expose a sidewall of the isolation structuresunder the source and drain regions. Thus, in such cases, a bottomportion of the final gate structure will have its sidewalls in contactwith the sidewalls of the isolation structures under the source anddrain regions.

It should be noted that, while generally referred to herein as a lowerfin portion for consistency and ease of understanding the presentdisclosure, the disclosed semiconductor structures are not limited tothat specific terminology and alternatively can be referred to, forexample, as a base layer, a subfin layer, a sub-channel layer, or finstub, or pedestal, or other comparable terms. Similarly, while generallyreferred to herein as an upper fin portion for consistency and ease ofunderstanding the present disclosure, the disclosed semiconductorstructures are not limited to that specific terminology andalternatively can be referred to, for example, as a channel layer orother comparable terms. Also, while generally referred to herein as asemiconductor body or simply body for consistency and ease ofunderstanding the present disclosure, the disclosed semiconductorstructures are not limited to that specific terminology and the bodyalternatively can be referred to, for example, as a channel region, anactive channel region, or other comparable terms. Further note thatreference to channel region is intended to refer to the semiconductorarea under the gate structure where carriers (electrons or holes) willpass when the circuit is powered on and operating under certainconditions. To this end, a channel region does not have to be activelypassing carriers for it to be considered a channel region; rather, atransistor has a channel region even when the channel itself is notactively passing carriers (because the transistor is not powered orotherwise conducting).

The use of “group III-V semiconductor material” (or “group III-Vmaterial” or generally, “group III-V”) herein includes at least onegroup III element (e.g., aluminum, gallium, indium) and at least onegroup V element (e.g., nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony,bismuth), such as gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium gallium arsenide(InGaAs), indium aluminum arsenide (InAlAs), gallium phosphide (GaP),gallium antimonide (GaSb), indium phosphide (InP), gallium nitride(GaN), and so forth. The use of “group IV semiconductor material” (or“group IV material” or generally, “IV”) herein includes at least onegroup IV element (e.g., silicon, germanium, carbon, tin), such assilicon (Si), germanium (Ge), silicon-germanium (SiGe), and so forth.Group III may also be known as the boron group or IUPAC group 13, groupIV may also be known as the carbon group or IUPAC group 14, and group Vmay also be known as the nitrogen family or IUPAC group 15, for example.

Note also that the term “compositionally different” as used herein withrespect to semiconductor materials or features/layers/structuresincluding semiconductor material means (at least) including differentsemiconductor materials or including the same semiconductor material butwith a different compositional ratio (e.g., where the concentration ofat least one component of the material is different). For instance, Geis compositionally different than InGaAs (as they are differentsemiconductor materials), but Si_(0.7)Ge_(0.3) is also compositionallydifferent than Si_(0.4)Ge_(0.6) (as they include different compositionalratios).

Note that, as used herein, the expression “X includes at least one of Aor B” refers to an X that may include, for example, just A only, just Bonly, or both A and B. To this end, an X that includes at least one of Aor B is not to be understood as an X that requires each of A and B,unless expressly so stated. For instance, the expression “X includes Aand B” refers to an X that expressly includes both A and B. Moreover,this is true for any number of items greater than two, where “at leastone of” those items is included in X. For example, as used herein, theexpression “X includes at least one of A, B, or C” refers to an X thatmay include just A only, just B only, just C only, only A and B (and notC), only A and C (and not B), only B and C (and not A), or each of A, B,and C. This is true even if any of A, B, or C happens to includemultiple types or variations. To this end, an X that includes at leastone of A, B, or C is not to be understood as an X that requires each ofA, B, and C, unless expressly so stated. For instance, the expression “Xincludes A, B, and C” refers to an X that expressly includes each of A,B, and C. Likewise, the expression “X included in at least one of A orB” refers to an X that may be included, for example, in just A only, injust B only, or in both A and B. The above discussion with respect to “Xincludes at least one of A or B” equally applies here, as will beappreciated.

Use of the techniques and structures provided herein may be detectableusing tools such as electron microscopy including scanning/transmissionelectron microscopy (SEM/TEM), scanning transmission electron microscopy(STEM), nano-beam electron diffraction (NBD or NBED), and reflectionelectron microscopy (REM); composition mapping; x-ray crystallography ordiffraction (XRD); energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX); secondaryion mass spectrometry (SIMS); time-of-flight SIMS (ToF-SIMS); atom probeimaging or tomography; local electrode atom probe (LEAP) techniques; 3Dtomography; or high resolution physical or chemical analysis, to name afew suitable example analytical tools. In particular, in someembodiments, such tools may indicate, for example, a transistorincluding insulator regions or structures below the source and drainregions, where the insulator extends in contact along a bottom surfaceof the source or drain region. In another example, such tools may alsoindicate a fin stub extending upward to contact the channel region orlower gate structure, where the fin stub is generally aligned below thechannel and gate structure and has its sidewalls adjacent and in contactwith the insulator structures under the source and drain regions. In afurther example, such tools may also indicate laterally grownreplacement source and drain regions that are distinct from, yetconnected to the body or channel region, in accordance with variousembodiments of the present disclosure. For example, TEM can be useful toshow a cross section of the device structure. In another example, x-raycrystallography can be useful to illustrate the crystal quality of theupper fin material, such as in the body or channel region. In a furtherexample, scanning spreading resistance microscopy (SSRM) can be used toidentify a boundary between the channel and source/drain regions basedon conductivity of the material. In some embodiments, the techniquesdescribed herein may be detected based on the benefits derived fromtheir use, which includes semiconductor devices with reduced or noparasitic subfin leakage according to some embodiments. Numerousconfigurations and variations will be apparent in light of thisdisclosure.

Architecture and Methodology

FIGS. 1A-1B and 2A-2B show example cross-sectional views of thesemiconductor fin 110 of a transistor 100, where the section is takenalong a plane defined by line A-A of FIG. 3, for example. FIG. 3illustrates a perspective view of an example structure with a pluralityof semiconductor fins 110 on a substrate 105 and a gate structure 161 incontact with and extending perpendicularly to the semiconductor fins110. In some embodiments, the gate structure 161 has a tri-gateconfiguration that contacts the top 134 and opposing side walls (e.g.,principal faces 135) of the semiconductor fins 110. Examples of atri-gate configuration are illustrated in the cross-sectional views ofFIGS. 1A-1B and the perspective view of FIG. 3. In other embodiments,the gate structure 161 has a gate-all-around configuration that contactsthe top 134, bottom 136, and sides 135 of the semiconductor fin 110.Examples of a gate-all-around configuration are illustrated in thecross-sectional views of FIGS. 2A-2B. Various example embodiments of atransistor 100 structure configured in accordance with the presentdisclosure are discussed in more detail below.

In some embodiments, the substrate 105 can be a bulk semiconductor, alayer of semiconducting material on a support structure, or anon-conducting support substrate, for example. In some embodiments, thesubstrate 105 is a bulk semiconductor comprising silicon, germanium,silicon germanium, gallium arsenide, indium arsenide, galliumantimonide, indium gallium, arsenide, silicon carbide, or other group IVor group III-V material. In some embodiments, the lower fin portion 112can be formed from the substrate 105 material. For example, the lowerfin portion 112 is a fin formed from the substrate 105 by recessing thesurrounding portions of substrate 105 to define one or more fins. In oneexample, the substrate 105 and the lower fin portion 112 both comprisegallium arsenide (GaAs). In other embodiments, the lower fin portion 112is compositionally different from the substrate 105. In one example,lower fin portion 112 comprises GaAs, SiGe having a germaniumconcentration in excess of 50 atomic percent, Ge or other suitablematerial formed on a substrate 105 of bulk silicon or any other suitablematerial.

A semiconductor fin can have various structures, depending on theformation process used. In some embodiments, a semiconductor fin isformed on a bulk semiconductor substrate, such as single-crystalsilicon, germanium, silicon germanium, or other semiconductor materialsubstrate. In one example fin forming process, native or so-calledplaceholder fins are first formed from the bulk semiconductor substrate,using a patterned mask and etch process. The resulting recesses betweenthe placeholder fins are then filled with an insulator material, and theresulting structure is planarized to the tops of the placeholder fins.Then, at least some of the placeholder fins are recessed using apatterned mask and an etch process selective to the insulator material.Then, one or more desired replacement materials are deposited into thetrench(es) where the placeholder fin(s) used to be. A replacement finmay be one continuous fin or a multiplayer fin structure, such as onehaving a lower portion comprising a first semiconductor material and anupper portion comprising a second semiconductor material different fromthe first semiconductor material. In some embodiments, group III-Vmaterial is grown on a group IV substrate to replace a recessed orotherwise removed group IV placeholder fin. For example, a layer of GaAscan be formed in the trench and directly on a bulk silicon substrate,followed by forming a layer of InGaAs in the trench and on top of theGaAs material and extending up therefrom in a fin shape.

Semiconductor fin 110 includes a lower fin portion 112 and an upper finportion 114 formed on top of the lower fin portion 112 and extendingupwardly therefrom. The upper fin portion 114 includes a body 130 of afirst semiconductor material between and connected to source and drainregions 132 that extend laterally from the body 130. In someembodiments, the body 130 has laterally opposed body sidewalls 133,where the source and drain regions 132 contact and extend laterally fromrespective opposed body sidewalls 133. The source and drain regions 132can be of the same or different semiconductor material as the body 130.In one example, the source and drain regions 132 comprise the samesemiconductor material as the body 130, but may differ from the body 130in dopant and/or dopant concentration. In other embodiments, the sourceand drain regions 132 are compositionally different from the body 130.For example, the body 130 comprises indium gallium arsenide and thesource and drain regions 132 comprise indium phosphide or other III-Vmaterial formed in contact with the body material. Examples of suchprocessing is discussed in more detail below with reference to method400 and FIG. 4.

Lower fin portion 112 is formed directly on the substrate 105 andincludes a subfin or fin stub 113 with laterally opposed sidewalls 116that extend up towards or to upper fin portion 114 in accordance withsome embodiments. For example, the fin stub 113 has a top surface thatcontacts a bottom surface 136 of the body 130, where laterally opposedbody sidewalls 133 extend continuously with the laterally opposedsidewalls 116 of the fin stub 113. Such an embodiment may be employed ina tri-gate configuration as illustrated in FIGS. 1A-1B, for example. Inother embodiments, the fin stub 113 is removed or otherwise spaced apartfrom a bottom surface 136 of the body 130 by a bottom gate portion 165,where the laterally opposed body sidewalls 133 of the body extend ingeneral alignment but are not continuous with the laterally opposedsidewalls 116 of fin stub 113 a. Such an embodiment may be employed in agate-all-around configuration as illustrated in FIGS. 2A-2B, forexample.

In some embodiments, the lower fin portion 112 (and therefore fin stub113) comprises a second semiconductor material different from the firstsemiconductor material of the body 130. For example, in some suchembodiments, the fin stub 113 is III-V material used as a seed layer forthe a second III-V material of the body 130. In one specific embodiment,for example, the lower fin portion 112 and fin stub 113 comprise galliumarsenide and the upper fin portion 114 and body 130 comprise indiumgallium arsenide. In other embodiments, the fin stub 113 is a group IVmaterial and the body is a second group IV material. In one example, thefin stub 113 is silicon and the body 130 is silicon germanium (SiGe) orgermanium (Ge). As will be appreciated in light of this disclosure,other materials are acceptable for fin stub 113 and body 130 asdiscussed in more detail below with reference to method 400.

A gate structure 161 directly contacts the top surface 134 of the body130 of semiconductor fin 110. In some embodiments, the gate structure161 includes a gate dielectric 182, gate spacers 160, and a gateelectrode 184, where the gate dielectric 182 directly contacts yetelectrically isolates the gate electrode 184 from the body 130. Ingeneral, the body 130 is located below the gate structure 161 and canalso be referred to as the channel region. In one embodiment, thetransistor 100 is configured as a tri-gate transistor with a gatestructure 161 contacting a top 134 and opposite principal faces 135 ofthe body 130.

When the substrate 105 is oriented horizontally with the semiconductorfins 110 extending upward therefrom, for example, the transistor 100 mayexhibit a vertical stack 125 of layers that includes a substrate 105 atthe bottom, a fin stub 113 on the substrate 105, the body 130 on the finstub 113 with the bottom surface 136 of the body 130 contacting the finstub 113 and the top surface 134 of the body 130 in contact with thegate structure 161, in accordance with some embodiments. Gate structure161, body 130, and fin stub 113 may each have laterally opposedsidewalls that are vertically aligned with one another in someembodiments. Source and drain regions 132 are located on opposite sidesof and extend laterally from the body 130. Insulator regions 150 arelocated below each of the source and drain regions 132 on opposite sidesof the layer stack 125. A bottom surface 132 a of each source and drainregion 132 extends along and contacts the insulator region 150 below it.Insulator regions 150 also extend to contact the laterally opposedsidewalls 116 of the fin stub 113 of the lower fin portion 112. As such,the insulator regions 150 are positioned to block parasitic leakage ofcharge carriers from the source and drain regions 132 to the lower finportion 112.

In another embodiment, such as shown in FIGS. 2A-B, a transistor 100 isconfigured as a gate-all-around transistor with a gate structure 161contacting a top 134, bottom 136, and opposite principal faces 135 ofthe body 130. When the substrate 105 is oriented horizontally withsemiconductor fins 110 extending upward therefrom, for example, thetransistor 100 having a gate-all-around configuration may exhibit avertical stack 125 of layers that includes the substrate 105 on thebottom, a lower fin portion 112 on the substrate with a fin stub 113extending upward, a bottom gate portion 165 on the fin stub 113 with thebottom surface of the bottom gate portion 165 contacting the fin stub113, the bottom 136 of the body 130 in contact with the top of thebottom gate portion 165, and a top gate portion 163 in contact with top134 of the body 130, in accordance with some embodiments. As can befurther seen in FIGS. 2A-B, laterally opposed sidewalls of the top gateportion 163, body 130, bottom gate portion 165, and fin stub 113 may bevertically aligned in some embodiments. As with embodiments discussedabove, source and drain regions 132 extend laterally from the body 130and an insulator region 150 is located below each source and drainregion 132 on opposite sides of the layer stack 125. A bottom 132 a ofeach source and drain region 132 extends along and contacts theinsulator region 150 below it. Insulator regions 150 extend laterally tocontact the sidewalls of bottom gate portion 165. In some embodiments,insulator regions 150 may also contact the sidewalls 116 of the fin stub113 below the bottom gate portion 165. As in embodiments discussedabove, insulator regions 150 are positioned to block parasitic leakageof charge carriers (or so-called subfin leakage) from source and drainregions 132.

In some embodiments, the insulator regions 150 extend completely throughthe lower fin portion 112 and contact the substrate 105. In otherembodiments, the insulator regions 150 extend into the material of thelower fin portion 112, leaving a base of lower fin material on thesubstrate and below the insulator region 150. In either case, theinsulator regions 150 extend up to be at least even with the bottom 136of the body 130, such as shown in the example structures of FIGS. 1A and2A. In other embodiments, the insulator regions 150 extend verticallyabove the bottom 136 of the body 130 and overlap the body sidewalls 133(e.g., by at least 1 nm or more, such as by 2 nm to 5 nm) as shown inthe example structures of FIGS. 1B and 2B. In embodiments wheresidewalls of the insulator regions 150 overlap a portion of the body 130sidewalls, charge carriers are restricted from flowing from the sourceor drain regions 132 to the lower fin portion 112. In some embodimentswhere the gate structure 161 includes a GAA configuration having bottomgate portion 165 below the body 130, the insulator regions 150 sidewallscontact sidewalls 141 of the bottom gate portion 165. In someembodiments, the insulator regions 150 extend vertically below thebottom gate portion 165 and contact the sidewalls 116 of the fin stub113, as further shown in FIGS. 2A-B.

Source and drain contacts 140 are formed in isolation layer 181 andapplied to the top surface 132 b of the source and drain regions 132 orto other surfaces as suitable. In some embodiments, a contact resistancereducing layer 144 directly contacts the top surface 132 b of the sourceand drain regions 132 as an interface between the contact 140 and thesource/drain region 132. In general, the contact resistance reducinglayer 144 has a conductivity type consistent with the conductivity ofthe underlying source or drain region 132. In one example embodiment,the contact resistance reducing layer 144 is indium arsenide (InAs) onsource and drain regions 132 of InGaAs. Other suitable materialcombinations will be apparent in light of the present disclosure.

In some embodiments, the length L_(g) of gate electrode 184 (e.g., thehorizontal dimension between gate spacers 160 in FIG. 1A), may be anysuitable length as can be understood based on this disclosure. Forinstance, in some embodiments, the gate length L_(g) may be in the rangeof 3-100 nm (e.g., 3-10, 3-20, 3-30, 3-50, 5-10, 5-20, 5-30, 5-50,5-100, 10-20, 10-30, 10-50, 10-100, 20-30, 20-50, 20-100, or 50-100 nm),or any other suitable value or range as will be apparent in light ofthis disclosure. In some embodiments, the gate length L_(g) may be lessthan a given threshold, such as less than 100, 50, 40, 30, 25, 20, 15,10, 8, or 5 nm, or less than any other suitable threshold as will beapparent in light of this disclosure. For instance, in some embodiments,the gate length L_(g) may be the same as or similar to the channellength. In other embodiments, the gate length may be greater than thebody 130 or channel region by up to 20%, due to potential diffusion ofdopant from the S/D regions into the body 130 and/or due to the use ofS/D region tips that extend under the gate structure.

Referring now to FIG. 3, a perspective view illustrates an examplestructure that includes a plurality of transistors 100. The relativedimensions and features shown in FIG. 3 may differ in some ways comparedto the features shown in FIGS. 1-2 for ease of illustration. Note alsothat some variations occur between the respective structures shown FIGS.1-3, such as the shape of gate spacers 160 and the absence of a visiblecontact resistance reducing layer 144 in FIG. 3, for instance. Somefeatures may be omitted or drawn with different geometry for convenienceof illustration, however, the present disclosure is not limited by thesedifferences.

Each semiconductor fin 110 includes a lower fin portion 112 on thesubstrate 105 and a fin stub 113 that extends up from the substrate 105to a bottom 136 of the body 130 (not visible; shown in FIGS. 1A-1B).Source and drain regions 132 extend laterally from the body 130, whichis hidden below the gate structure 161 in FIG. 3. Each source and drainregion 132 includes a source/drain contact 140 on its top surface. Thegate structure 161 extends perpendicularly to the semiconductor fins 110and includes a gate electrode 182 and gate dielectric 184. The gatestructure 161 contacts the top 134 and principal faces 135 of eachsemiconductor fin 110 at the body 130 (not visible). A first isolationlayer 180 fills open areas between adjacent lower fin portions 112 ofsemiconductor fins 110; a second isolation layer 181 on the firstisolation layer 180 similarly fills open areas between adjacent upperfin portions 114 of semiconductor fins 110 and gate structure 161, inaccordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. Isolationlayers 180, 181 may be the same or different insulating materials, suchas a low-k dielectric (e.g., porous SiO₂), an oxide (e.g., SiO₂), anitride (e.g., Si₃N₄), or other insulating material, to name a fewexamples.

In some embodiments, semiconductor fins 110 of a plurality of differentmaterials may be formed on different areas of the substrate 105, such asfor CMOS applications. For instance, a semiconductor fin 110 with afirst material may be formed on a first area to be used for one or morep-channel transistor devices (e.g., one or more PMOS devices) and asemiconductor fin 110 with a second material layer may be formed on asecond area to be used for one or more n-channel transistor devices(e.g., one or more NMOS devices). By selecting the substrate 105 andmaterial of the lower fin portion 112 to have the desired materialcharacteristics (e.g., the desired semiconductor material and/or thedesired lattice constant, for example) the substrate 105 can be used toform semiconductor fins 110 with a variety of high-quality materials fortransistor devices.

Referring now to FIG. 4, an aspect of the present disclosure is directedto a method 400 of making an integrated circuit transistor 100 inaccordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. Note thatthe techniques for forming the finned structures used in the channelregion of one or more transistors may include blanket depositiontechniques, replacement fin techniques, and/or any other suitabletechniques as will be apparent in light of this disclosure. Further notethat method 400 includes a primary path for completion of transistorsthat illustrates a gate-last transistor fabrication process flow (e.g.,a replacement gate process flow), which is utilized in some embodiments.However, in other embodiments, a gate-first process flow may be used, aswill be described herein. Numerous variations and configurations will beapparent in light of this disclosure.

Method 400 includes providing 402 a semiconductor substrate 105 inaccordance with some embodiments. The substrate 105 in some embodiments,may include any suitable material, such as monocrystalline semiconductormaterial that includes at least one of silicon (Si), germanium (Ge),carbon (C), tin (Sn), phosphorous (P), boron (B), arsenic (As), antimony(Sb), indium (In), and gallium (Ga) to name a few examples. In someembodiments, the substrate 105 is a bulk wafer, such as monocrystallinesilicon, germanium, silicon carbide (SiC), gallium nitride (GaN), andgallium arsenide (GaAs) to name a few examples. The semiconductormaterial can be selected in some embodiments from group III-V materialsand/or group IV materials. Further, the substrate 105 can comprise asemiconductor layer deposited or grown on, or transferred to, astructural base, such as silicon carbide layer epitaxially grown on asapphire base. Substrate 105, in some embodiments may include asemiconductor on insulator (SOI) structure where an insulator/dielectricmaterial (e.g., an oxide material, such as silicon dioxide) issandwiched between two semiconductor layers, such as in a buried oxide(BOX) structure. For example, in some such embodiments the SOI structureincludes a silicon dioxide layer on a bulk silicon wafer, and a toplayer on the silicon dioxide layer is monocrystalline silicon. As willbe appreciated, the thickness of the semiconductor substrate (or thesemiconductor layer(s) of the substrate, as the case may be) can be anythickness suitable for the devices to be fabricated thereon.

Method 400 continues with forming 404 one or more lower fin portions 112on the substrate 105, followed by forming 406 one or more upper finportions 114 on the one or more lower fin portions, in accordance withsome embodiments. In some embodiments, the lower fin portions 112 arethe same material as the upper fin portions 114, but in otherembodiments the lower fin portions 112 are a first material and theupper fin portions 114 are a second material different from the firstmaterial. In some embodiments, each lower fin portion 112 and upper finportion 114 can be formed using any suitable processing, such as one ormore of the aforementioned deposition/epitaxial growth processes (e.g.,CVD, PVD, ALD, VPE, MBE, LPE), melt regrowth, and/or any other suitableprocessing, as can be understood based on this disclosure. In onespecific example embodiment, for example, each lower fin portion 112 andupper fin portion 114 is formed by growth or deposition in a trenchformed in an insulating layer on the substrate 105. In some suchembodiments, the trench is an aspect ratio trapping trench (“ARTtrench”) that is formed by removing a previously formed fin that isnative to (part of) the substrate 105 using an etch that is selective toinsulating material surrounding the native fins (i.e., the etch removesthe native fin material at a much faster rate than it removes theinsulating material). In some embodiments, the trenches have a verticaltrench height (e.g., along the Y-axis direction) from 100-800 nm, forexample. Other values of vertical trench height are acceptable dependingon the desired overall initial fin height. In any case, once thetrenches are formed, the semiconductor material of the lower fin portion112 is then deposited or grown in the trenches to a certain height(e.g., such as 25 to 50 percent of the overall trench height). Then, thesemiconductor material of the upper fin portion 114 is then deposited orgrown in the trenches and on top of the lower fin portion 112 to fillthe remainder of the trench. The resulting structure can then beplanarized as needed (e.g., by chemical mechanical polishing), down tothe tops of the newly formed fins (which include lower portion 112 andupper portion 114).

In other embodiments, the lower fin portions 112 and upper fin portions114 can be formed via a blanket deposition and lithography process toform the fins (including the lower portion 112 and upper portion 114).In some such cases, for example, a blanket of a first semiconductormaterial is deposited onto substrate 105, and a blanket of a secondsemiconductor material is then deposited onto the first material. If thefirst and second materials are different, then additional processing canbe carried out between the two depositions, if so desired, such as cleanand polish of the first material blanket layer prior to deposition ofthe second material blanket layer. The blanket depositions are thenfollowed by masking off the regions to be formed into fins and etchingisolation trenches in the remaining material to define the lower finportions 112 (in the first blanket layer) and the upper fin portions 114(in the second blanket layer). As will be appreciated, the desiredheights of the lower fin portions 112 and the upper fin portions 114 canbe initially set based on the height of the respective first and secondblanket layers.

As previously explained, the lower fin portions 112 may be the samematerial as the upper fin portions 114, or may be a different material.Having different materials for the lower and upper fin portions may behelpful, for instance, in material systems where a lattice matchbuffering effect is desired. For example, if the desired substrate 105material is silicon and the desired channel material (upper fin portion114) is a group III-V material such as indium gallium arsenide, thenusing an intervening buffer layer of gallium arsenide (lower fin portion112) between the substrate 105 and channel materials (upper fin portion114) may allow the channel material to have fewer or no defects.

In some embodiments, the lower fin portion 112 comprises a III-Vsemiconductor, such as GaAs, InGaAs, AlGaAs, or AlAs, to name a fewexamples. In other embodiments, the lower fin portion 112 comprises agroup IV semiconductor, such as Si, SiGe, or Ge. In some embodiments,lower fin portion 112 may have a multilayer structure including two ormore distinct layers that may or may not be compositionally different.In some embodiments, the lower fin portion 112 may include grading,where one or more material concentrations changes gradually throughoutat least a portion of the material.

As can be seen in FIGS. 1A-2B, each lower fin portion 112 may include avertical height H_(lf) (dimension in the Y-axis direction), and eachupper fin portion 114 may include a vertical height H_(b). As can befurther seen, each fin portion 112 and 114 has a horizontal fin width(dimension in the X-axis direction, as seen in a cross-section takenperpendicular to the fin). In some example embodiments, fin width is inthe range of 2 nm-400 nm (or in any subrange thereof, such as 2-10,2-20, 2-50, 2-100, 2-200, 4-10, 4-20, 4-50, 4-100, 4-200, 4-400, 10-20,10-50, 10-100, 10-200, 10-400, 50-100, 50-200, 50-400, or 100-400 nm).While in non-planar transistor configurations, fin width will likely besmaller (e.g., less than 50 nm), in planar transistor configurations finwidth may be much larger, where the transistor is effectively built onthe top of a relatively wide fin or mesa. In some embodiments, the ratioof overall fin height (H_(lf) plus H_(b)) to fin width (such as thewidth taken at a midpoint of either of the fin portions 112 and 114, orat the interface of those fin portions) is greater than 1, such asgreater than 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, or 20, orhigher. Further, in some embodiments, lower fin portions 112 can beformed to have different heights, different fin widths, differentvertical starting points (location in the Y-axis direction), differentshapes, and/or any other suitable variation(s) as will be apparent inlight of this disclosure. Same goes for the upper fin portions 114. Inaddition, while the fins are shown as having perfectly verticalsidewalls, in other embodiments the sidewalls may be tapered such thatwidth at the top of a given fin (in portion 114) is smaller than widthat the bottom (in portion 112) or midpoint of that fin, or may otherwisebe less than perfectly vertical. In a more general sense, the finportions 112 and 114 may have any number of cross-sectional shapes andprofiles and may further have any suitable values/ranges/thresholds ofheight, width, and the ratio or height to width, as will be furtherapparent in light of this disclosure.

Similarly, trenches used to form lower fin portions 112 and upper finportions 114 may be formed to have varying trench depths, varying trenchwidths, varying vertical starting points (location in the Y-axisdirection), varying shapes, and/or any other suitable variation(s) aswill be apparent in light of this disclosure. For instance, in somecases, a trench may be wider at its top than at its bottom, therebyproviding an overall fin shape having similar attributes (wider inportion 114 than in portion 112). Although four semiconductor fins 110are shown in the example structure of FIG. 3 for ease of illustration,any number of fins may be formed, such as one, two, three, five, ten,hundreds, thousands, millions, and so forth, as will be appreciated.Also, note that the lower fin portions 112 and 114 are shown for ease ofillustration in FIGS. 1B and 2B as having height that are relativelygreater than the substrate thickness H_(sub) (dimension in the Y-axisdirection) of substrate 105. However, in some embodiments, the thicknessH_(sub) of substrate 105 may be much greater than the overall finheight, for example.

In some embodiments, the lower fin portion 112 can be used as a templateor a seeding layer from which to form various different layers of upperfin portion 114, for purposes of providing a quality crystal structure(e.g., low defect count) in the upper fin portion 114. Further, in somesuch embodiments, the material of lower fin portion 112 may be doped.For instance, in some embodiments, the material of lower fin portion 112may be intentionally p-type or n-type doped with a doping concentrationin the range of 1E15 to 1E18 atoms per cubic cm.

Numerous variations on the fin forming process will be apparent. Forinstance, in some embodiments, after deposition of the lower fin portion112 but prior to deposition of the upper fin portion 114, the lower finportion 112 can be first recessed to a desired height H_(lf) in thetrench that was used to form the lower fin portion 112 (e.g., in theY-axis direction), which may be more precise than attempting to stop thedeposition process at that height. Recessing the material of lower finportion 112 may be performed by a selective chemical etch or othersuitable methods. In one such example embodiment, where the material oflower fin portion 112 is GaAs, an ammonium hydroxide/peroxide solutioncan be used to recess the GaAs material to the desired height H_(lf). Inanother embodiment, an anisotropic etch can be performed to recessmaterial of the lower fin portion 112. In some embodiments, the lowerfin portion 112 is recessed to have a height H_(lf) in a range from 2nm-50 nm or any other suitable height as will be apparent in light ofthis disclosure.

After recessing the material of the lower fin portion 112, the upper finportion 114 can be formed in the trench on top of the lower fin portion112 using any suitable deposition techniques as previously explained, inaccordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments, the material ofupper fin portion 114 may include any suitable semiconductor material,such as monocrystalline group IV and/or group III-V semiconductormaterial, for example. As can be seen in FIGS. 1A-2B, the upper finportion 114 may include a vertical height H_(b) (e.g., dimension in theY-axis direction). In some embodiments, this height H_(b) is in therange of 20-300 nm (or in any subrange thereof, such as 20-50, 20-100,20-200, 20-300, 50-100, 50-200, 50-300, 100-200, 100-300, or 200-300nm). In some embodiments, the height Hb of the upper fin portion 114 isdetermined by the depth of the trench used to form the upper fin portion114 along with the height H_(lf) of the lower fin portion 112.

In some embodiments, the material of the upper fin portion 114 isselected to be lattice matched or have a lattice mismatch no greaterthan 4% with respect to the material of the lower fin portion 112. Inother embodiments, the material of the upper fin portion 114 has alattice mismatch of at most 2%, at most 3%, at most 5%, or at most 6%with respect to the material of the lower fin portion 112. As such, thematerials of the lower fin portion 112 and the upper fin portion 114 canbe selected as a pair of materials having the desired lattice match orother properties that result in the desired crystal quality of the upperfin portion 114. In some embodiments, the material of the upper finportion 114 is a III-V material with virtually no defects, such as beingfree of stacking faults and dislocation defects. In other embodiments,the material of the upper fin portion 114 has no more than 1E6 defectsper cm², which in some cases is the resolution limit of TEM analysis. Inother embodiments, the material of the upper fin portion 114 has no morethan 1E8, no more than 1E9, or no more than 1E10 defects per cm². Insome embodiments, the material of the upper fin portion 114 has acarrier mobility of at least 300 cm²/vs, at least 400 cm²/vs, at least500 cm²/vs, at least 600 cm²/vs, at least 700 cm²/vs, at least 800cm²/vs, at least 900 cm²/vs or at least 1000 cm²/vs. Other suitablematerials and thickness values/ranges/thresholds will be apparent inlight of this disclosure.

In some embodiments, the material of the upper fin portion 114 mayinclude at least one of silicon, germanium, gallium, arsenide, indium,and/or aluminum. In some embodiments, the material of the upper finportion 114 may be doped with any suitable n-type or p-type dopant at adopant concentration in the range of 1E15 to 1E18 atoms per cubic cm,for example. For example, in the case of group IV semiconductormaterials, the group IV material may be p-type doped using a suitableacceptor (e.g., boron) or n-type doped using a suitable donor (e.g.,phosphorous, arsenic). In another example, in the case of group III-Vsemiconductor material, the group III-V material may be p-type dopedusing a suitable acceptor (e.g., beryllium, zinc) or n-type doped usinga suitable donor (e.g., silicon or magnesium). In other embodiments, thematerial of the upper fin portion 114 (or a portion thereof) may beintrinsic/undoped or lightly doped with a dopant concentration less than1E15 atoms per cubic cm. Further, in some embodiments, the upper finportion 114 may include grading the concentration of one or morematerials within the feature, such as a gradual increase or decrease ofa semiconductor material component concentration and/or dopantconcentration. For instance, the grading may occur as the material ofthe upper fin portion 114 is epitaxially grown laterally from the lowerfin portion 112 (e.g., indium concentration may be graded in an upperfin portion of InGaAs).

Further, in some embodiments, a sacrificial material layer may beinitially deposited in the upper fin portion 114 at 406, where thesacrificial material layer may be later removed and replaced with finalmaterial layer in the channel region during gate-last processing. Such asacrificial material layer or part thereof may be employed inembodiments where multiple layers of material define the upper finportion 114, for example. In one example, a sacrificial material layeris used in the formation of nanowires or nanoribbons. As will be furtherappreciated, the lower fin portion 112 can also be sacrificial innature, for purposes of forming nanowire(s) in the upper fin portion 114(e.g., where the sacrificial materials are removed during gate-lastprocessing to effectively liberate the upper fin portion 114 in thechannel region from underlying materials, thereby allowing room forfinal gate materials to be formed all around the channel region). Inanother example, a sacrificial material layer is used to define sourceand drain regions 132 that can be removed in subsequent processing andreplaced with final material.

In some embodiments, the upper fin portion 114 of semiconductor fin 110may include a multilayer structure that includes two or more distinctlayers (that may or may not be compositionally different). In some suchembodiments, the upper fin portion 114 may be formed using alayer-by-layer epitaxial growth approach (e.g., using an MBE process),such that the upper fin portion 114 may or may not appear to havedistinct interfaces within the layer, depending on the particularconfiguration and observation level. In embodiments where a nanowire (ornanoribbon or GAA) transistor is to be formed from the body 130 of theupper fin portion 114, it may include at least one active layer and atleast one sacrificial layer to be removed to release the active layer ofmaterial in the channel region to enable forming a nanowire transistor.For instance, in an example embodiment, the upper fin portion 114 mayinclude alternating layers of group IV and group III-V semiconductormaterial, where either the group IV or group III-V material issacrificial, to enable the formation of one or more nanowires byselectively removing the sacrificial material during replacement gateprocessing.

In some embodiments employing multiple different materials in the upperfin portion 114, the first material may include group IV semiconductormaterial (e.g., Si, SiGe, Ge, etc.) and the second material may includegroup III-V semiconductor material (e.g., GaAs, InGaAs, InAs, InP,etc.). In general, a given upper fin portion 114 may includemonocrystalline group IV semiconductor material and/or group III-Vsemiconductor material. For instance, in a nanowire or beaded-fintransistor configuration, the upper fin portion 114 may include bothgroup IV semiconductor material and group III-V semiconductor material.Numerous different configurations and variations will be apparent inlight of this disclosure.

In some embodiments, multiple different materials for the upper finportion 114 may be formed in different areas of the substrate 105, suchas for CMOS applications, for example. For instance, a first materialmay be formed on a first area of the substrate 105 to be used for one ormore p-channel transistor devices (e.g., one or more PMOS devices) and asecond material may be formed on a second area of the substrate 105 tobe used for one or more n-channel transistor devices (e.g., one or moreNMOS devices). By selecting the material of the lower fin portion 112 tohave the desired properties, multiple different layers of upper finportion 114 can be grown. For instance, in some such embodiments, thefirst material may include a n-type group III-V or group IV material anda second material may include a p-type group III-V or group IV material.

After forming semiconductor fins 110 with the lower fin portion 112 andthe upper fin portion 114, the resulting structure may include one ormore isolation layers 180, 181 between adjacent semiconducting fins 110in accordance with some embodiments. The isolation layers 180, 181 canbe recessed 408 or removed completely to expose part or all ofsemiconductor fins 110 extending up from substrate 105, in accordancewith some embodiments. To this end, and with further reference to FIG.4, method 400 continues with removing or recessing 408 the isolationlayers 180, 181 as needed. In some embodiments, such as when the gatestructure 161 is a tri-gate structure, the second isolation layer 181 isrecessed 408 to expose the upper fin portion 114, where the firstisolation layer 180 remains on the substrate 105 and contacts the lowerfin portion 112 below the upper fin portion 114. In other embodiments,such as when the gate structure 161 is to be configured as agate-all-around structure, the isolation layers 180, 181 can be removedcompletely or as otherwise needed to allow for the GAA processing, inaccordance with some embodiments.

Having exposed all or part of the semiconductor fin 110, method 400continues with forming 410 a dummy gate structure or a final gatestructure 161 in contact with the body 130 of the upper fin portion 114,in accordance with some embodiments. A gate-last fabrication process mayutilize a dummy gate structure to allow for replacement gate processing,while a gate-first fabrication process may form the final gate structure161 in the first instance. Forming 410 the gate structure 161 isprimarily described herein in the context of a gate-last transistorfabrication flow, where the processing includes forming a dummy gatestructure, performing the source/drain (S/D) processing, and thenforming the final gate structure 161 after the S/D regions have beenprocessed. In other embodiments, the techniques may be performed using agate-first process flow. In such example embodiments, a dummy gatestructure need not be formed, as the final gate structure 161 can beformed in the first instance. However, the description of the continuedprocessing will be described using a gate-last process flow, to allowfor such a gate-last flow to be adequately described. Regardless, theend structure of either a gate-first or a gate-last process flow willinclude the final gate structure 161, as will be apparent in light ofthis disclosure.

In this example embodiment, forming 410 a dummy gate structure includesdepositing a dummy gate dielectric (e.g., oxide material) and a dummygate electrode (e.g., polysilicon material), as normally done. Note thatgate spacers 160 on either side of the dummy gate structure are alsoformed in some embodiments. Gate spacers 160 can help determine thechannel length and/or help with replacement gate processing, forexample. Formation of the dummy gate structure may include, for example,depositing the dummy gate dielectric material and dummy gate electrodematerial, patterning and etching the dummy gate structure, depositinggate spacer material 160, and performing a spacer etch. Gate spacers 160may include any suitable material, such as any suitable electricalinsulator, dielectric, oxide (e.g., silicon oxide), and/or nitride(e.g., silicon nitride) material, as will be apparent in light of thisdisclosure. Note that in some embodiments, a hardmask (not shown) may beformed over the dummy gate structure (which may or may not also beformed over gate spacers 160) to protect the dummy gate structure duringsubsequent processing, for example. As will be appreciated, the dummygate structure (including gate spacers 160) and body 130 effectivelydefine the channel region, where the channel region corresponds to thebody 130 located generally below the dummy gate structure and betweenthe S/D regions 132. Accordingly, the S/D regions 132 are also locatedon either side of and adjacent the gate structure.

Method 400 continues with recessing 412 the source and drain regions 132of semiconductor fins 110 to define pockets in the material of the lowerfin portion 112 adjacent the channel region, which is located under thegate structure. The source and drain regions 132 may be recessed usingany suitable techniques, such as masking regions outside of the S/Dregions 132 and etching the exposed areas adjacent the gate structure.In some embodiments, the dummy gate structure can be used as a mask.Accordingly, the exposed areas (where the source and drain regions 132will be) can be etched through the upper fin portion 114 and into orthrough lower fin portion 112. Note that a selective etch process can beused in creating the source/drain recesses. For instance, when the upperfin portion 114 is InGaAs and the lower fin portion 112 is GaAs, forexample, etchants can be used that are selective to remove thesecompounds at a rate much greater than removal of the gate structure orhard mask on the gate structure. In some embodiments, etching isperformed using a combination of anisotropic and isotropic etch methods.For example, the first 80% of the etch process is performed using ananisotropic etch to remove material downward into the lower fin portion112, followed by 20% of the etch process performed using an isotropicetch process.

An anisotropic etch process can be an effective first etch step todefine a fin stub 113 in the lower fin portion 112, where the fin stub113 has opposed lateral sidewalls 116 that extend generally verticallyand are aligned below the generally vertical portions of gate dielectric182 of the top gate portion 163 (e.g., vertical ±5°). However, in someexamples, an anisotropic etch may result in laterally opposed sidewalls116 that slope downward and outward, rather than generally vertically.As a result, a residual material layer of the lower fin portion 112 mayremain on sidewalls 141 of the bottom gate portion 165, where theresidual layer slopes outwardly away from gate dielectric 182 (shown,e.g., in FIGS. 2A-2B, in the context of the final gate structure). Thesubsequent isotropic etch process can further be employed to definepockets that extend laterally and partially undercut part of the body130 (in tri-gate embodiments) or fully undercut the body 130 (ingate-all-around embodiments, such as in FIGS. 2A-B), for example. Theisotropic etch process may be selective to more rapidly remove materialof the lower fin portion 112. The isotropic etch process can thereforebe used to recess the material of the lower fin portion 112 downward andlaterally to the gate dielectric of the bottom gate portion 165, therebyeliminating any residual layer (e.g., ˜2 nm) of material along thesidewalls 141 of bottom gate portion 165 that remain after theanisotropic etch.

Using a combination of anisotropic and isotropic etch processes, orother suitable etch process, the fin stub 113 can be aligned below thebody 130 (in tri-gate embodiments) or the bottom gate portion 165 (ingate-all-around embodiments). For example, and with reference to thefinal gate structure 161, the opposed lateral sidewalls 116 of the finstub 113 can be formed to align with the respective sidewalls of thegate dielectric 182 between the gate spacers 160 and the gate electrode184 of the top gate portion 163. Similarly, the opposed lateralsidewalls 116 of the fin stub 113 can be formed to align with therespective sidewalls of the gate dielectric 182 of the bottom getportion 165.

In some example embodiments, the pockets defined for the insulatorregion 150 extend at least 10 nm below the bottom 136 of the body orchannel region. In some such embodiments, where the final gate structure161 will have a gate-all-around configuration, the etch into the lowerfin portion 112 is performed to define pockets that extend down belowthe bottom gate portion 165. For example, the pockets extend at least 10nm below the bottom 136 of the body 130, consistent with the verticalthickness of about 10 nm for the bottom gate portion 165, in accordancewith some embodiments. In other embodiments, each pocket extends atleast 2 nm below the bottom gate portion 165, such as at least 4 nm, atleast 6 nm, at least 8 nm, and at least 10 nm below the bottom gateportion 165.

Method 400 continues with depositing 414 an insulator region 150 in thepockets defined by the etch 412 into lower fin portion 112. Theinsulator region 150 can be a layer of oxide (e.g., SiO₂), nitride(e.g., Si₃N₄), high-k dielectric (e.g., hafnium oxide), low-k dielectric(e.g., porous SiO₂), alumina, a spin-on dielectric, or some otherinsulating material in accordance with some embodiments. The insulatorregions 150 can have a vertical layer thickness so that the insulatorregions extend up at least to the bottom 136 of the channel region. Insome embodiments, the insulator regions 150 extend up above the bottom136 of the channel region by 2 nm or more, thereby overlapping a portionof the channel region (i.e., body 130). In some embodiments, theinsulator regions 150 may include a multilayer structure, such as afirst layer comprising a first insulator material and a second layercomprising a second insulator material. Any number of insulatorstructures can be used for insulator regions 150, as will be appreciatedin light of this disclosure.

Method 400 continues with forming 416 replacement source and drainregions 132 that are directly connected to and extend laterally from thebody 130 of upper fin portion 114. Replacement source and drain regions132 take the place of the source and drain regions 132 that were removedwhen etch processing 412 was performed to define pockets for theinsulator regions 150. In some embodiments, the replacement material forthe source and drain (S/D) regions 132 can be formed/deposited/grownusing any suitable techniques, such as CVD, PVD, ALD, VPE, MBE, or LPE,for example. In some embodiments, material for the source and drainregions 132 is epitaxially grown laterally from the material of body 130(i.e., the material of upper fin portion 114 located below gatestructure 161). In some embodiments, the source and drain regions 132comprise the same compound as body 130, except perhaps for the presenceor concentration of dopants. For instance, the body 130 and source/drainregions 132 are InGaAs, such as In_(0.53)Ga_(0.47)As, in one exampleembodiment. When the body 130 and source and drain regions 132 are thesame material (not considering dopants), the boundary between thesestructures can be seen using conductive AFM scan or scanning spreadingresistance microscopy (SSRM), for example, to identify boundaries basedon conductivity. In other embodiments, the source and drain regions 132are compositionally different from the body 130. For example, when thebody 130 is InGaAs, the source and drain regions 132 can be InAs, InP,an InGaAs compound with different molar ratios, or any combination ofthese materials to name a few examples. In another example, when thebody 130 is Si, the source and drain regions 132 can be SiGe, Si, or Ge.Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) can be used to see the boundarybetween compositionally different materials in accordance with someembodiments.

In some embodiments, the source and drain regions 132 of the upper finportion 114 are grown epitaxially with a suitable dopant and dopantconcentration during growth. As such, an abrupt junction may existbetween the source and drain regions 132 and the body 130. In otherembodiments, the source and drain regions 132 are formed epitaxiallywithout dopants, then are doped, implanted, and/or clad with final S/Dmaterial and/or have any other suitable processing performed to convertthe material into suitable final S/D regions 132, for example. Thematerial of the replacement S/D regions 132 also generally defines adistinct interface with the underlying insulator region 150, as will beappreciated.

In some embodiments, one or more of the S/D regions 132 may have amultilayer structure including two or more distinct layers, for example.For instance, in some configurations, the source and drain regions havea bi-layer structure that includes two distinct layers, for example.Numerous such multilayer S/D configurations can be used. In someembodiments, one or more of the S/D regions 132 may include grading(e.g., increasing and/or decreasing) the content/concentration of one ormore materials in some or all of the region(s). For instance, in someembodiments, it may be desired to gradually increase the concentrationof a given dopant as a given S/D region 132 is formed, to have arelatively lower doping concentration near the channel region and arelatively higher doping concentration near the corresponding S/Dcontact 140 for improved contact resistance.

In some embodiments, the S/D regions 132 may be formed one polarity at atime, such as performing processing for one of n-type and p-type S/Dregions 132, and then performing processing for the other of the n-typeand p-type S/D regions 132. In some embodiments, the S/D regions 132 mayinclude any suitable material, such as monocrystalline group IV and/orgroup III-V semiconductor material and/or any other suitablesemiconductor material. In some embodiments, the S/D regions 132corresponding to the material of body 130 may include the same group ofsemiconductor material as what is included in the body 130, such that ifthe given body 130 includes group IV semiconductor material, thecorresponding S/D regions 132 may also include group IV semiconductormaterial (whether the same IV material or different); however, thepresent disclosure is not intended to be so limited. The S/D regions 132may include any suitable doping scheme, such as including suitablen-type and/or p-type dopant concentration in the range of 1E18 to 2E22atoms per cubic cm. However, in some embodiments, at least one S/Dregion 132 may be undoped/intrinsic or lightly doped, such as includinga dopant concentration of less than 1E16 atoms per cubic cm, forexample.

Note that for ease of illustration and description, all S/D regions 132are shown as being the same and are identified collectively by referencenumeral 132. However, in some embodiments, the S/D regions 132 mayinclude differing materials, dopant schemes, shapes, sizes,corresponding channel regions (e.g., 1, 2, 3, or more), and/or any othersuitable difference as will be appreciated. For instance, the S/Dregions 132 of FIG. 3 are shown as having a rectangular fin shape (asviewed in the X-Y plane). However, a faceted shape or a domed shape mayalso be provisioned, to provide a few examples. Further note that theshading or patterning of the features/layers of the IC structuresincluded in the Figures (such as S/D regions 132) is provided merely toassist in visually distinguishing those different IC features/layers.Such shading or patterning is not intended to limit the presentdisclosure in any manner. Numerous transistor S/D configurations andvariations will be apparent in light of this disclosure.

In embodiments utilizing a gate-last fabrication flow, method 400continues with processing 426 the final gate structure 161 in accordancewith some embodiments. An example structure with a plurality ofcompleted transistors 100 is shown in FIG. 3. In one example embodiment,processing 426 includes depositing an interlayer dielectric (ILD) 181material on the semiconductor fins, dummy gate structure, and isolationlayer 180, followed by planarization and/or polishing (e.g., CMP) toreveal the top of dummy gate structure. Note that in some cases,isolation material 181 and isolation layer 180 may not include adistinct interface as illustrated in FIG. 3, particularly where, thesame isolation material is used. In some embodiments, the isolationmaterial 181 may include any suitable insulator material, such as one ormore oxides (e.g., silicon dioxide), nitrides (e.g., silicon nitride),dielectrics, and/or an electrically insulating material, for example.

Processing 426 the final gate structure 161, in this example embodiment,includes removing the dummy gate structure (including dummy gateelectrode and dummy gate dielectric) to allow for the final gatestructure 161 to be formed. Recall that in some embodiments, theformation of the final gate structure 161, which includes gatedielectric 182 and gate electrode 184, may be performed using agate-first fabrication flow (e.g., an up-front hi-k gate process). Insuch embodiments, the final gate processing 426 may have been performedprior to the S/D processing 418, for example. Further, in suchembodiments, process 426 need not be performed, as the final gatestructure 161 would have already been formed in process 410. However, inthis example embodiment, the gate structure 161 is formed using agate-last fabrication flow, which may also be considered a replacementgate or replacement metal gate (RMG) process. Regardless of whethergate-first or gate-last processing is employed, the final gate structure161 can include gate dielectric 182 and gate electrode 184 as shown inFIG. 3 and described herein, in accordance with some embodiments.

When the dummy gate materials are removed, the body 30 of thesemiconductor fin 110 that was covered by the dummy gate structure isexposed to allow for processing of the channel region. In this example,the body 130 is generally synonymous with the channel region since thebody 130 is the portion of the semiconductor fin 110 in contact with thedummy gate and will also contact the final gate structure 161.Processing the channel region may include various different techniques,such as removing the body 130 and replacing it with replacement channelregion material, shaping the channel region, cladding the channelregion, doping the channel region as desired, forming the channel regioninto one or more nanowires (or nanoribbons) for a gate-all-around (GAA)transistor configuration, forming the channel region into a beaded-finconfiguration, cleaning/polishing the channel region, removing all or aportion of the lower fin portion 112, and/or any other suitableprocessing as will be apparent in light of this disclosure.

The channel region of each semiconductor fin 110, designated in thisexample by the body 130, may include any suitable configuration, such asa finned configuration, a nanowire configuration, or a beadedconfiguration to name some examples. For instance, in some embodiments,the channel region may include a material that is compositionallydifferent from the original material of upper fin portion 114. Thus, afin-shaped body 130 may be used for an n-channel or p-channel finnedtransistor device, while body 130 of another configuration may be usedfor the other of an n-channel or p-channel finned transistor device, inaccordance with an example embodiment. Further, in some embodiments,channel region of a given semiconductor fin may be included in acomplementary transistor circuit (e.g., a CMOS circuit), for instance.

In addition to finned configurations utilizing a tri-gate or double-gatestructure, other non-planar transistor configurations can be used. Insome embodiments, a nanowire channel region includes one or morenanowires (or nanoribbons). For instance, nanowires may be formed afterremoving the dummy gate structure to expose the body 130, such as byconverting the fin-shaped body 130 at that location into nanowires usingany suitable techniques. For example, the original fin-shaped body 130may have included a multilayer structure with one or more sacrificiallayers. In such case, a selective etch can be performed to remove thesacrificial layer(s) and define the nanowires. In some embodiments, ananowire (or nanoribbon or GAA) transistor formed using the techniquesdisclosed herein may include any number of nanowires (or nanoribbons)such as 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, or more, depending on the desiredconfiguration. In some embodiments, a nanowire or nanoribbon may beconsidered fin-shaped where the final gate structure 161 wraps aroundeach fin-shaped nanowire or nanoribbon in a GAA transistorconfiguration, such as shown in the cross-sectional views of FIGS.2A-2B.

To provide yet another example non-planar transistor configuration, body130 can have a beaded-fin configuration that is a hybrid between afinned configuration and a nanowire configuration, where a sacrificialmaterial can be partially removed to define the resulting beaded-fin orhour-glass shaped structure. In contrast, a sacrificial material can becompletely removed to define nanowires. Such a beaded-fin configurationfor body 130 may benefit, for example, from increased gate control(e.g., compared to a fin-shaped structure) while also having relativelyreduced parasitic capacitance (e.g., compared to a nanowire structure).Therefore, numerous different configurations of the channel region canbe employed using the techniques described herein, including planar andvarious non-planar configurations.

The channel region is generally at least below the final gate structure161, in some embodiments. For instance, in the case of a planartransistor configuration, the gate structure 161 may contact the channelregion only on the top surface, for example. However, in the case of afinned transistor configuration, such as shown in the tri-gateconfiguration of FIGS. 1A-1B and FIG. 3, the body 130 may be below andbetween the gate structure 161, since the gate structure 161 can beformed on the top 134 and in contact with opposite principal faces 135of the finned structure (e.g., in a tri-gate manner). Further, in thecase of a GAA transistor configuration, such as shown in FIGS. 2A-2B,the gate structure 161 may substantially (or completely) surround eachnanowire/nanoribbon in the channel region (e.g., wrap around at least80, 85, 90, or 95% of each nanowire/nanoribbon).

Generally, in some embodiments, the body 130 or channel region mayinclude any suitable material, such as monocrystalline group IV and/orgroup III-V semiconductor material, for example. In some embodiments,the channel region of a given transistor 100 may be doped (e.g., withany suitable n-type and/or p-type dopants) or intrinsic/undoped,depending on the particular configuration. Note that S/D regions 132 areadjacent to either side of a given channel region and therefore adjacenteither side of the gate structure 161, as can be seen in FIGS. 1-3. Inother words, each body/channel region is positioned betweencorresponding S/D regions 132.

The gate dielectric 182 may include, for example, any suitable oxide(such as silicon dioxide), high-k dielectric material, and/or any othersuitable material as will be apparent in light of this disclosure.Examples of high-k dielectric materials include, for instance, hafniumoxide, hafnium silicon oxide, lanthanum oxide, lanthanum aluminum oxide,zirconium oxide, zirconium silicon oxide, tantalum oxide, titaniumoxide, barium strontium titanium oxide, barium titanium oxide, strontiumtitanium oxide, yttrium oxide, aluminum oxide, lead scandium tantalumoxide, and lead zinc niobate, to provide some examples. In someembodiments, an annealing process may be carried out on the gatedielectric 182 to improve its quality when high-k dielectric material isused. The gate electrode 184 may include a wide range of materials, suchas polysilicon or various suitable metals or metal alloys, such asaluminum (Al), tungsten (W), titanium (Ti), tantalum (Ta), copper (Cu),titanium nitride (TiN), or tantalum nitride (TaN), for example.

In some embodiments, gate dielectric 182 and/or gate electrode 184 mayinclude a multilayer structure of two or more material layers, forexample. For instance, in some embodiments, a multilayer gate dielectric182 may be employed where the structure includes a first layer of oxidenative to the underlying body 130 material, and a second layer ofhafnium oxide on the native oxide. In such cases, note that it may bedifficult to distinguish the native oxide portion of the gate dielectricstructure from the underlying insulator layer, particularly if those twofeatures are the same material. In any case, however, they are differentlayers since one layer is formed by deposition and the native oxideportion of the gate dielectric is formed by an oxidation process, forexample. Likewise, the gate electrode may include multiple layers, suchas one or more relatively high or low work function layers and/or othersuitable layers. Example work function materials for PMOS devicesinclude, for instance, titanium nitride, tantalum nitride, ruthenium,palladium, platinum, cobalt, nickel, and conductive metal oxides (e.g.,ruthenium oxide). Example work function materials for NMOS devicesinclude, for instance, hafnium, zirconium, titanium, tantalum, aluminum,alloys of these metals, and carbides of these metals such as hafniumcarbide, zirconium carbide, titanium carbide, tantalum carbide, andaluminum carbide. Numerous different gate structure configurations willbe apparent in light of this disclosure.

Method 400 continues with forming 428 S/D contacts 140 in accordancewith some embodiments. As shown in FIG. 3, for example, S/D contacts 140can be formed in contact with a top surface 132 b of each of the S/Dregions 132. The S/D contacts 140 may be formed 428 using any suitabletechniques, such as forming contact trenches in ILD layer 181 over therespective S/D regions 132 and depositing metal or metal alloy (or othersuitable electrically conductive material) in the trenches. In someembodiments, forming 428 S/D contacts 140 may include silicidation,germanidation, III-V-idation, and/or annealing processes, for example.In some embodiments, S/D contacts 140 may include aluminum or tungsten,although any suitable conductive metal or alloy can be used, such astitanium, copper, silver, nickel-platinum, or nickel-aluminum, forexample. In some embodiments, one or more of the S/D contacts 140 mayinclude a resistance reducing metal and a contact plug metal, or just acontact plug, for instance. Examples of metals that reduce contactresistance include, for instance, nickel, aluminum, titanium, gold,gold-germanium, nickel-platinum, nickel aluminum, and/or other suchresistance reducing metals or alloys. Examples of contact plug metalsinclude, for instance, aluminum, copper, nickel, platinum, titanium, ortungsten, or alloys thereof, although any suitably conductive contactmetal or alloy may be used. In some embodiments, additional layers maybe present in the S/D contact 140 regions, such as adhesion layers(e.g., titanium nitride) and/or liner or barrier layers (e.g., tantalumnitride), if so desired. In some embodiments, a contact resistancereducing layer 144 may be present between a given S/D region 132 and itscorresponding S/D contact 140 as shown, for example, in FIGS. 1-2. Thecontact resistance reducing layer 144 is an intervening semiconductormaterial layer between the material of the S/D region and the S/Dcontact 140. The contact resistance reducing layer 144 can have arelatively high dopant concentration (e.g., with dopant concentrationsgreater than 1E18, 1E19, 1E20, 1E21, or 1E22 atoms per cubic cm), forexample. In some such embodiments, the contact resistance reducing layer144 may include semiconductor material and/or impurity dopants based onthe included material and/or dopant concentration of the correspondingS/D region 132, for example. In one example embodiment, the contactresistance reducing layer 144 is indium arsenide formed on S/D regions132 of InGaAs, for example.

Method 400 continues with completing 430 a general integrated circuit(IC) as desired, in accordance with some embodiments. Such additionalprocessing to complete 430 an IC may include back-end orback-end-of-line (BEOL) processing to form one or more metallizationlayers and/or to interconnect the transistor devices formed, forexample. Any other suitable processing may be performed, as will beapparent in light of this disclosure. Note that the processes in method400 are shown in a particular order for ease of description. However,one or more of the processes may be performed in a different order ormay not be performed at all (and thus be optional), in accordance withsome embodiments. Numerous variations on method 400 and the techniquesdescribed herein will be apparent in light of this disclosure.

A multitude of different transistor devices can benefit from thetechniques described herein, including, but is not limited to, variousfield effect transistors (FETs), n-channel devices (e.g., NMOS), and/orp-channel devices (e.g., PMOS). In addition, in some embodiments, thetechniques may be used to benefit transistors including a multitude ofconfigurations, such as planar and/or non-planar configurations, wherethe non-planar configurations may include finned or FinFETconfigurations (e.g., dual-gate or tri-gate), gate-all-around (GAA)configurations (e.g., nanowire or nanoribbon), or some combinationthereof (e.g., a beaded-fin configurations), to provide a few examples.Further, techniques of the present disclosure may be used to benefitcomplementary transistor circuits, such as complementary MOS (CMOS)circuits, where the techniques may be used to benefit one or more of theincluded n-channel and/or p-channel transistors making up the CMOScircuit. Other example transistor devices that can benefit from thetechniques described herein include few to single electron quantumtransistor devices, in accordance with some embodiments. Further still,any such devices may employ semiconductor materials that arethree-dimensional crystals as well as two dimensional crystals ornanotubes, for example. In some embodiments, the techniques may be usedto benefit devices of varying scales, such as IC devices having criticaldimensions in the micrometer (micron) range and/or in the nanometer (nm)range (e.g., formed at the 22, 14, 10, 7, 5, or 3 nm process nodes, orbeyond).

Example System

FIG. 5 illustrates an example computing system 1000 including integratedcircuit structures and/or transistor devices formed using the techniquesdisclosed herein, in accordance with some embodiments of the presentdisclosure. As can be seen, the computing system 1000 houses amotherboard 1002. The motherboard 1002 may include a number ofcomponents, including, but not limited to, a processor 1004 and at leastone communication chip 1006, each of which can be physically andelectrically coupled to the motherboard 1002, or otherwise integratedtherein. As will be appreciated, the motherboard 1002 may be, forexample, any printed circuit board, whether a main board, adaughterboard mounted on a main board, or the only board of system 1000,etc.

Depending on its applications, computing system 1000 may include one ormore other components that may or may not be physically and electricallycoupled to the motherboard 1002. These other components may include, butare not limited to, volatile memory (e.g., DRAM), non-volatile memory(e.g., ROM), a graphics processor, a digital signal processor, a cryptoprocessor, a chipset, an antenna, a display, a touchscreen display, atouchscreen controller, a battery, an audio codec, a video codec, apower amplifier, a global positioning system (GPS) device, a compass, anaccelerometer, a gyroscope, a speaker, a camera, and a mass storagedevice (such as hard disk drive, compact disk (CD), digital versatiledisk (DVD), and so forth). Any of the components included in computingsystem 1000 may include one or more integrated circuit structures ordevices formed using the disclosed techniques in accordance with anexample embodiment. In some embodiments, multiple functions can beintegrated into one or more chips (e.g., for instance, note that thecommunication chip 1006 can be part of or otherwise integrated into theprocessor 1004).

The communication chip 1006 enables wireless communications for thetransfer of data to and from the computing system 1000. The term“wireless” and its derivatives may be used to describe circuits,devices, systems, methods, techniques, communications channels, etc.,that may communicate data through the use of modulated electromagneticradiation through a non-solid medium. The term does not imply that theassociated devices do not contain any wires, although in someembodiments they might not. The communication chip 1006 may implementany of a number of wireless standards or protocols, including, but notlimited to, Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 family), WiMAX (IEEE 802.16 family), IEEE802.20, long term evolution (LTE), Ev-DO, HSPA+, HSDPA+, HSUPA+, EDGE,GSM, GPRS, CDMA, TDMA, DECT, Bluetooth, derivatives thereof, as well asany other wireless protocols that are designated as 3G, 4G, 5G, andbeyond. The computing system 1000 may include a plurality ofcommunication chips 1006. For instance, a first communication chip 1006may be dedicated to shorter range wireless communications such as Wi-Fiand Bluetooth and a second communication chip 1006 may be dedicated tolonger range wireless communications such as GPS, EDGE, GPRS, CDMA,WiMAX, LTE, Ev-DO, and others.

The processor 1004 of the computing system 1000 includes an integratedcircuit die packaged within the processor 1004. In some embodiments, theintegrated circuit die of the processor includes onboard circuitry thatis implemented with one or more integrated circuit structures or devicesformed using the disclosed techniques, as variously described herein.The term “processor” may refer to any device or portion of a device thatprocesses, for instance, electronic data from registers and/or memory totransform that electronic data into other electronic data that may bestored in registers and/or memory.

The communication chip 1006 also may include an integrated circuit diepackaged within the communication chip 1006. In accordance with somesuch example embodiments, the integrated circuit die of thecommunication chip includes one or more integrated circuit structures ordevices formed using the disclosed techniques as variously describedherein. As will be appreciated in light of this disclosure, note thatmulti-standard wireless capability may be integrated directly into theprocessor 1004 (e.g., where functionality of any chips 1006 isintegrated into processor 1004, rather than having separatecommunication chips). Further note that processor 1004 may be a chip sethaving such wireless capability. In short, any number of processor 1004and/or communication chips 1006 can be used. Likewise, any one chip orchip set can have multiple functions integrated therein.

In various implementations, the computing system 1000 may be a laptop, anetbook, a notebook, a smartphone, a tablet, a personal digitalassistant (PDA), an ultra-mobile PC, a mobile phone, a desktop computer,a server, a printer, a scanner, a monitor, a set-top box, anentertainment control unit, a digital camera, a portable music player, adigital video recorder, or any other electronic device or system thatprocesses data or employs one or more integrated circuit structures ordevices formed using the disclosed techniques, as variously describedherein. Note that reference to a computing system is intended to includecomputing devices, apparatuses, and other structures configured forcomputing or processing information.

Further Example Embodiments

The following examples pertain to further embodiments, from whichnumerous permutations and configurations will be apparent.

Example 1 is an integrated circuit comprising a body of semiconductormaterial; a gate structure in contact with a portion of the body; asource region in contact with the body adjacent to the gate structure; adrain region in contact with the body adjacent to the gate structuresuch that the portion of the body is between the source region and thedrain region; a first isolation region under the source region andhaving a top surface in contact with a bottom surface of the sourceregion; and a second isolation region under the drain region and havinga top surface in contact with a bottom surface of the drain region.

Example 2 includes the subject matter of Example 1, wherein the gatestructure has a gate-all-around configuration with the gate structurefurther in contact with a bottom surface of the body.

Example 3 includes the subject matter of Example 1, wherein thesemiconductor material is a first semiconductor material, the integratedcircuit further comprising a fin stub of a second semiconductormaterial, the fin stub having a top surface in contact with a bottomsurface of the body and laterally opposed sidewalls extending down fromthe top surface of the fin stub, wherein a first one of the laterallyopposed sidewalls of the fin stub contacts the first isolation regionand a second one of the laterally opposed sidewalls of the fin stubcontacts the second isolation region.

Example 4 includes the subject matter of Example 3, wherein the secondsemiconductor material is a group III-V compound.

Example 5 includes the subject matter of Example 4, wherein the secondsemiconductor material comprises gallium and arsenic.

Example 6 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 3-5, whereinthe first semiconductor material is a group III-V compound.

Example 7 includes the subject matter of Example 6, wherein the firstsemiconductor material comprises indium, gallium, and arsenic.

Example 8 includes the subject matter of Example 3, wherein the secondsemiconductor material is a group IV compound.

Example 9 includes the subject matter of Example 8, wherein the secondsemiconductor material comprises silicon.

Example 10 includes the subject matter of Examples 3, 8, or 9, whereinthe first semiconductor material is a group IV compound.

Example 11 includes the subject matter of Example 10, wherein the firstsemiconductor material comprises (i) silicon, (ii) silicon andgermanium, or (iii) germanium.

Example 12 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 3-11, whereinthe fin stub is continuous with and part of a layer of the secondsemiconductor material directly on a substrate.

Example 13 includes the subject matter of Example 12, wherein thesubstrate comprises a bulk semiconductor material.

Example 14 includes the subject matter of Example 13, wherein the bulksemiconductor material is a group IV material, wherein the group IVmaterial comprises (i) monocrystalline silicon, (ii) monocrystallinegermanium, (iii) a material with at least 80 atomic percent germanium,or (iv) silicon and germanium.

Example 15 includes the subject matter of Example 1, wherein thesemiconductor material is a first semiconductor material, the integratedcircuit further comprising a fin stub of a second semiconductor materialthat is compositionally different from the first semiconductor material.

Example 16 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 3 through 15,wherein the first semiconductor material has a lattice mismatch nogreater than 4% with respect to the second semi conductor material.

Example 17 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 3 through 15,wherein the body of semiconductor material has laterally opposed bodysidewalls with a first laterally opposed body sidewall verticallyaligned with the first one of the laterally opposed sidewalls of the finstub and a second laterally opposed body sidewall vertically alignedwith the second one of the laterally opposed sidewalls of the fin stub.

Example 18 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 3 through 15,wherein the first isolation region has a sidewall that at leastpartially overlaps with and is in contact with the first one of thelaterally opposed sidewall of the fin stub, and the second isolationregion has a sidewall that at least partially overlaps with and is incontact with the second one of the laterally opposed sidewall of the finstub.

Example 19 includes the subject matter of Example 18, wherein the firstisolation region extends at least 10 nm below the source region and thesecond isolation region extends at least 10 nm below the drain region.

Example 20 includes the subject matter of Example 18 or 19, wherein thebody of semiconductor material has laterally opposed body sidewalls, thesidewall of the first isolation region partially overlaps with andcontacts the first laterally opposed body sidewall, and the sidewall ofthe second isolation region partially overlaps with and contacts thesecond laterally opposed body sidewall.

Example 21 includes the subject matter of Example 20, wherein thesidewall of the first isolation region overlaps the first one of thelaterally opposed body sidewalls by at least 2 nm and the sidewall ofthe second isolation region overlaps the second one of the laterallyopposed body sidewalls by at least 2 nm.

Example 22 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 1 through 21,wherein the gate structure is a tri-gate structure.

Example 23 includes the subject matter of any of the foregoing Examples,wherein the semiconductor material has virtually no defects.

Example 24 includes the subject matter of any of the foregoing Examples,wherein the body has a carrier mobility of at least 600 cm2/vs.

Example 25 includes the subject matter of Example 24, wherein thecarrier mobility is at least 700 cm2/vs.

Example 26 includes the subject matter of Example 24, wherein thecarrier mobility is at least 800 cm2/vs.

Example 27 includes the subject matter of any of the foregoing Examples,wherein the body, gate structure, source region, drain region, and firstand second isolation regions are part of a transistor, and thetransistor is one of a field effect transistor (FET), ametal-oxide-semiconductor FET (MOSFET), a tunnel-FET (TFET), a planarconfiguration, a finned configuration, a gate-all-around configuration,or a Fin-FET configuration, and wherein the transistor is one of an-channel transistor and a p-channel transistor.

Example 28 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 1 through 15further comprising a fin stub having a top surface spaced apart from abottom surface of the body, wherein the gate structure has agate-all-around configuration that includes a lower gate portion belowthat is below the body, the lower gate portion in contact with: a bottomsurface of the body, respective sidewalls of the first and secondisolation regions, and the top surface of the fin stub.

Example 29 includes the subject matter of any of the foregoing Examples,further comprising a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)circuit including a first transistor and a second transistor, the firsttransistor including the body, gate structure, source region, drainregion, and first and second isolation regions, wherein one of the firstand second transistors is an n-channel transistor and the other of thefirst and second transistors is a p-channel transistor.

Example 30 includes the subject matter of any of the foregoing Examples,wherein the first isolation region and the second isolation regioncomprise an insulating material, the insulating material including aninsulating oxide, an insulating nitride, a high-k dielectric, a low-kdielectric, or any combination of these insulating materials.

Example 31 is an integrated circuit comprising: a semiconductor fincomprising an upper fin portion of a first semiconductor material, theupper fin portion having a body portion, a source region laterallyadjacent to and directly connected to the body portion, and a drainregion laterally adjacent and directly connected to the body portionwith the body portion between the source region and the drain region; alower fin portion of a second semiconductor material, the lower finportion having a fin stub with laterally opposed sidewalls extendingupwardly towards the upper fin portion; a gate structure in directcontact with the body portion; a first insulator structure below thesource region and having a first insulator top surface in contact with abottom surface of the source region; and a second insulator structurebelow the drain region and having a second insulator top surface incontact with a bottom surface of the drain region; wherein the fin stubis positioned between the first insulator and the second insulator witha first one of the laterally opposed sidewalls in contact with asidewall of the first insulator structure and a second one of thelaterally opposed sidewalls in contact with a sidewall of the secondinsulator structure.

Example 32 includes the subject matter of Example 31, wherein the finstub has a top surface in contact with a bottom surface of the bodyportion.

Example 33 includes the subject matter of Example 31 or 32, wherein thefirst semiconductor material is the same as the second semiconductormaterial.

Example 34 includes the subject matter of Example 31, wherein the finstub has a top surface that is spaced apart from a bottom surface of thebody portion, and wherein the gate structure includes a top gate portionin contact with a top surface of the body portion and a bottom gateportion in contact with a bottom surface of the body portion, andwherein the fin stub has a top surface in contact with a bottom surfaceof the bottom gate portion, and wherein respective sidewalls of thebottom gate portion are in contact with corresponding sidewalls of thefirst and second insulator structures.

Example 35 includes the subject matter of Example 34, wherein the firstinsulator structure and the second insulator structure extend along andare in contact with both the bottom gate portion and at least a portionof the fin stub.

Example 36 includes the subject matter of Example 31, wherein the firstinsulator structure and the second insulator structure extend at least10 nm below the body portion.

Example 37 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 31-32 or34-36, wherein the first semiconductor material is a group III-Vcompound and the second semiconductor material is a group III-V compoundcompositionally different from the first semiconductor material.

Example 38 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 31-37, whereinthe first semiconductor material comprises (i) gallium and arsenic, (ii)indium, gallium, and arsenic, (iii), indium and phosphorous, (iv) indiumand arsenic, (v) germanium, or (vi) silicon and germanium.

Example 39 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 31-37, whereinthe first semiconductor material is a group IV compound and the secondsemiconductor material is a group IV compound compositionally differentfrom the first semiconductor material.

Example 40 includes the subject matter of Example 39, wherein the firstsemiconductor material comprises (i) germanium, (ii) silicon andgermanium, or (iii), silicon.

Example 41 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 31 through 40,wherein the first semiconductor material has a lattice mismatch nogreater than 4% with respect to the second semiconductor material.

Example 42 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 31-40 furthercomprising a substrate of bulk semiconductor material, wherein the lowerfin portion is on the substrate.

Example 43 includes the subject matter of Example 42, wherein the bulksemiconductor material comprises a group IV material.

Example 44 includes the subject matter of Example 43, wherein the groupIV material comprises (i) monocrystalline silicon, (ii) monocrystallinegermanium, (iii) a material with at least 80 atomic percent germanium,or (iv) silicon and germanium.

Example 45 includes the subject matter of Example 42, wherein thesubstrate is a bulk silicon substrate.

Example 46 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 31 through 40,wherein the first insulator structure extends at least 10 nm below thesource region and the second insulator structure extends at least 10 nmbelow the drain region.

Example 47 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 31 through 40,wherein the first insulator structure and the second insulator structureextend at least 2 nm along the body portion.

Example 48 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 31 through 40,wherein the body portion has laterally opposed body sidewalls verticallyaligned with respective ones of the laterally opposed sidewalls of thefin stub.

Example 49 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 31 through 40,wherein the gate structure is a tri-gate structure.

Example 50 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 31 through 40,wherein the first semiconductor material has a carrier mobility of atleast 600 cm2/vs.

Example 51 includes the subject matter of Example 50, wherein thecarrier mobility is at least 700 cm2/vs.

Example 52 includes the subject matter of Example 50, wherein thecarrier mobility is at least 800 cm2/vs.

Example 53 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 31-52, whereinthe body, gate structure, source region, drain region, and first andsecond isolation regions are part of a transistor, and the transistor isone of a field effect transistor (FET), a metal-oxide-semiconductor FET(MOSFET), a tunnel-FET (TFET), a planar configuration, a finnedconfiguration, a gate-all-around configuration, or a Fin-FETconfiguration, and wherein the transistor is one of a n-channeltransistor and a p-channel transistor.

Example 54 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 31 through 40,wherein the first isolation region and the second isolation regioncomprise an insulating material, the insulating material including aninsulating oxide, an insulating nitride, a high-k dielectric, a low-kdielectric, or any combination of these insulating materials.

Example 55 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 31 through 40,wherein the first insulator structure and the second insulator structurecomprise an insulating material selected from silicon dioxide, siliconnitride, aluminum oxide, hafnium oxide, titanium dioxide, a dielectric,pores, and alumina.

Example 56 is a computing system comprising the integrated circuit ofany of Examples 1-55.

Example 57 includes the subject matter of Example 56, wherein theintegrated circuit is a communication chip.

Example 58 includes the subject matter of Example 56, wherein theintegrated circuit is a touch screen controller.

Example 59 includes the subject matter of Example 56, wherein theintegrated circuit is a memory.

Example 60 is a method of forming a transistor, the method comprising:forming a gate structure in contact with a semiconductor body; forming afirst recess to a first side of the gate structure and a second recessto a second side of the gate structure, the first and second recessesextending past the semiconductor body and the gate structure, so as toexpose laterally opposing sidewalls of the semiconductor body; partiallyfilling the first and second recesses with an insulator material so asto provide first and second insulator structures, respectively, theheight of the insulator material in the first and second trenches beingat least up to a bottom surface of the semiconductor body; and forming asource region in the first recess and on top of the first insulatorstructure, and a drain region in the second recess and on top of thesecond insulator structure, wherein each of the source region and drainregion is directly connected to and extending laterally from thesemiconductor body.

Example 61 includes the subject matter of Example 60, wherein formingthe gate structure includes removing a portion of semiconductor materialbelow the body with the gate structure in contact with a bottom surfaceof the body.

Example 62 includes the subject matter of Example 60 or 61 and furthercomprises depositing a source contact on the source region; anddepositing a drain contact on the drain region.

Example 63 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 60 through 62,wherein forming the source region and the drain region is performed byepitaxial lateral growth from the respective sidewalls of thesemiconductor body.

Example 64 includes the subject matter of Example 63, wherein theepitaxial lateral growth includes supplying a dopant to the sourceregion and the drain region.

Example 65 includes the subject matter of Example 63, wherein the sourceregion and the drain region are compositionally different from thesemiconductor body.

Example 66 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 60-65, whereinthe gate structure is a dummy gate structure, the method furthercomprising: removing the dummy gate structure; processing the body todefine one or more nanowires, one or more nanoribbons, or a beaded finstructure in the body; and forming a final gate structure on the body.

Example 67 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 60-66, whereinforming the first and second recesses is performed using a combinationof an anisotropic etch and an isotropic etch.

The foregoing description of example embodiments has been presented forthe purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the present disclosure to the precise formsdisclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light ofthis disclosure. It is intended that the scope of the present disclosurebe limited not by this detailed description, but rather by the claimsappended hereto. Future filed applications claiming priority to thisapplication may claim the disclosed subject matter in a differentmanner, and may generally include any set of one or more limitations asvariously disclosed or otherwise demonstrated herein.

1. An integrated circuit comprising: a body of semiconductor material; agate structure in contact with a portion of the body; a source region incontact with the body; a drain region in contact with the body such thatthe portion of the body in contact with the gate structure is betweenthe source region and the drain region; a first isolation region underthe source region and having a top surface in contact with a bottomsurface of the source region; and a second isolation region under thedrain region and having a top surface in contact with a bottom surfaceof the drain region.
 2. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein thesemiconductor material is a first semiconductor material, the integratedcircuit further comprising a fin stub of a second semiconductormaterial, the fin stub having a top surface in contact with a bottomsurface of the body and laterally opposed sidewalls extending down fromthe top surface of the fin stub, wherein a first one of the laterallyopposed sidewalls of the fin stub contacts the first isolation regionand a second one of the laterally opposed sidewalls of the fin stubcontacts the second isolation region.
 3. The integrated circuit of claim2, wherein the fin stub is continuous with and part of an underlyingsubstrate.
 4. (canceled)
 5. The integrated circuit of claim 2, whereinthe first isolation region has a sidewall that at least partiallyinterfaces with and is in contact with the first one of the laterallyopposed sidewall of the fin stub, and the second isolation region has asidewall that at least partially interfaces with and is in contact withthe second one of the laterally opposed sidewall of the fin stub. 6.(canceled)
 7. The integrated circuit of claim 5, wherein the sidewall ofthe first isolation region partially interfaces with the first one ofthe laterally opposed body sidewalls for at least 2 nm and the sidewallof the second isolation region partially interfaces with the second oneof the laterally opposed body sidewalls for at least 2 nm.
 8. Theintegrated circuit of claim 1 further comprising a fin stub having a topsurface spaced apart from a bottom surface of the body, wherein the gatestructure has a gate-all-around configuration that includes a lower gateportion that is below the body, the lower gate portion in contact with:a bottom surface of the body, respective sidewalls of the first andsecond isolation regions, and the top surface of the fin stub.
 9. Anintegrated circuit comprising: a semiconductor fin comprising an upperfin portion of a first semiconductor material, the upper fin portionhaving a body portion, a source region extending laterally from a firstside of the body portion, and a drain region extending laterally from asecond side of the body portion, with the body portion between thesource region and the drain region, and a lower fin portion of a secondsemiconductor material, the lower fin portion having a fin stub withlaterally opposed sidewalls extending upwardly towards the upper finportion; a gate structure in direct contact with the body portion; afirst insulator structure below the source region and having a firstinsulator top surface in contact with a bottom surface of the sourceregion; and a second insulator structure below the drain region andhaving a second insulator top surface in contact with a bottom surfaceof the drain region; wherein the fin stub is between the first insulatorand the second insulator with a first one of the laterally opposedsidewalls in contact with a sidewall of the first insulator structureand a second one of the laterally opposed sidewalls in contact with asidewall of the second insulator structure.
 10. The integrated circuitof claim 9, wherein the fin stub has a top surface in contact with abottom surface of the body portion.
 11. The integrated circuit of claim9, wherein the fin stub has a top surface that is spaced apart from abottom surface of the body portion, and wherein the gate structureincludes a top gate portion in contact with a top surface of the bodyportion and a bottom gate portion in contact with a bottom surface ofthe body portion, and wherein the fin stub has a top surface in contactwith a bottom surface of the bottom gate portion, and wherein respectivesidewalls of the bottom gate portion are in contact with correspondingsidewalls of the first and second insulator structures.
 12. (canceled)13. The integrated circuit claim 9, wherein the first insulatorstructure and the second insulator structure extend at least 10 nm belowthe body portion.
 14. The integrated circuit of claim 9, wherein thefirst semiconductor material is a first group III-V compound and thesecond semiconductor material is a second group III-V compoundcompositionally different from the first semiconductor material.
 15. Theintegrated circuit of claim 9, wherein the first semiconductor materialcomprises (i) gallium and arsenic, (ii) indium, gallium, and arsenic,(iii), indium and phosphorous, (iv) indium and arsenic, (v) germanium,or (vi) silicon and germanium.
 16. (canceled)
 17. The integrated circuitof claim 9, wherein the first insulator structure extends at least 10 nmbelow the source region and the second insulator structure extends atleast 10 nm below the drain region.
 18. The integrated circuit of claim9, wherein the first insulator structure and the second insulatorstructure extend at least 2 nm along the body portion.
 19. Theintegrated circuit of claim 9, wherein the body portion has laterallyopposed body sidewalls vertically aligned with respective ones of thelaterally opposed sidewalls of the fin stub.
 20. The integrated circuitof claim 9, wherein the gate structure is a tri-gate structure.
 21. Theintegrated circuit of claim 9, wherein the first semiconductor materialindium, gallium, and arsenic, and the second semiconductor materialcomprises indium, gallium, arsenic, and an n-type impurity.
 22. Theintegrated circuit of claim 9, wherein the first insulator structure andthe second insulator structure comprise an insulating material selectedfrom silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, aluminum oxide, hafnium oxide,titanium dioxide, a dielectric, pores, and alumina. 23-25. (canceled)26. An integrated circuit comprising: a nanowire comprising asemiconductor material; a gate structure in contact with and wrappedaround the nanowire; a source region in contact with the nanowire; adrain region in contact with the nanowire such that the portion of thenanowire is between the source region and the drain region; a firstisolation region under the source region and having a top surface incontact with a bottom surface of the source region; and a secondisolation region under the drain region and having a top surface incontact with a bottom surface of the drain region.
 27. The integratedcircuit of claim 26, wherein the semiconductor material is a firstsemiconductor material, the integrated circuit further comprising a finstub of a second semiconductor material, the fin stub having a topsurface spaced from the nanowire and laterally opposed sidewallsextending down from the top surface of the fin stub, wherein a first oneof the laterally opposed sidewalls of the fin stub contacts the firstisolation region and a second one of the laterally opposed sidewalls ofthe fin stub contacts the second isolation region.